Fuel cell-powered vehicles are being developed by the domestic and foreign automotive industry as a more fuel efficient and less polluting alternative to the current internal combustion engines. Since the fuel cells operate preferably on hydrogen, but storing of hydrogen on-board a vehicle is not as convenient as carrying liquid hydrocarbon fuel in a tank, a "fuel processor" must generate the hydrogen.
Converting hydrocarbon fuels to hydrogen can be done by steam reforming (reaction of the hydrocarbon with steam) or by partial oxidation (reaction with a substoichiometric amount of air). Steam reforming reactors are fairly bulky and are heat-transfer limited. Partial oxidation is more rapid but less developed. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,566 issued Sep. 28, 1993 to Kumar et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference, for a general discussion of the use of a fuel cell in a vehicle.
It is highly desirable to provide a catalyst for the partial oxidation reaction so that the temperature, can be lowered from the 1000.degree. C. temperatures required for steam reformers. At lower temperatures, the reactors can be smaller, and the product gas contains higher concentrations of hydrogen and less carbon monoxide, which is desirable. However, an appropriate catalyst has heretofore not been available. This invention relates to a new family of catalysts that are effective for the conversion of a wide range of hydrocarbons, including aliphatic hydrocarbons to hydrogen.